Rask is crafting his own legend in these NHL playoffs

Thursday

Jun 6, 2013 at 2:53 PM

BOSTON — Tuukka Rask may not make the kind of sprawling, stand-on-his-head saves that his predecessor Tim Thomas was famous for, but the Boston Bruins are more than happy with the results.Heading into...

Mark Divver Assistant Sports Editor markdivver

BOSTON — Tuukka Rask may not make the kind of sprawling, stand-on-his-head saves that his predecessor Tim Thomas was famous for, but the Boston Bruins are more than happy with the results.

Heading into Game Four of the Eastern Conference finals on Friday night, Rask is putting together a remarkable performance in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

In fact, Rask’s numbers in 2013 are better than those of Thomas to this point in 2011, when Thomas delivered a Stanley Cup for the Bruins and won the Conn Smythe Award as the postseason MVP.

In his first 15 playoff games during the 2011 Cup run, Thomas was 10-5 with a .929 save percentage and a 2.34 goals-against average.

Rask to this point is 11-4 with a .940 save percentage and a 1.85 goals-against average.

And his statistics against Pittsburgh are off the charts.

The 26-year-old Finn is 3-0-0 with a .982 save percentage and a 0.56 goals-against average. He’s yielded just two goals in 11 periods against one of the top offensive teams in the league.

Without the flourishes that defined Thomas’ game, Rask authored a 53-save masterpiece in Boston’s 2-1 double-overtime victory in Game Three. With a quick-catching glove and near-perfect pad control, he was a model of efficiency — calm and steady in the face of an onslaught of shots from some of the NHL’s top snipers.

“Tuukka’s been our most consistent player all year long, and he just proved that again tonight, coming up with some big saves when we really needed them,” said Chris Kelly.

Any lingering doubts about Rask — who was in the Bruins net when they blew a 3-0 lead against Philadelphia in 2010 — have been put to rest.

“He’s really given us the saves that we need and the energy, the momentum that we need, in order to do the job in front of him. They had some really good looks that we should have done a better job defensively, and he bailed us out,” said Patrice Bergeron, who scored the game-winner.

Coach Claude Julien agreed. “Well, what can you say? If you keep talking about those first three periods [in Game Three], they were probably the better team. There’s no doubt we were still in it because of him. He’s extremely calm. I think he used a lot of that energy this morning in practice so it calmed him down for tonight, which was probably a good thing.”

Julien was referring to the morning skate on Wednesday, when Rask was hit in the shoulder by a high shot from Shawn Thornton. In pain, Rask bolted from the net, slammed his stick and barked angrily at Thornton.

Beneath Rask’s usually calm demeanor resides a legendary temper — his five-star, milk-crate tossing nutty after a shootout loss in Providence several years ago lives on for posterity on YouTube.

Julien had said early this week that Rask is one of the more normal goalies he’s been around.

After the morning skate blowup, Julien added, “I told him, ‘You’re making me look bad.’ I said, ‘I told everybody you were normal.’ But I said, ‘I did tell them you had a temper.’”

By signing Rask to a one-year, $3.5-million contract before the season, the Bruins basically challenged Rask to prove that he’s worthy of a big-dollars deal. Mission accomplished. Rask will be a restricted free agent this summer, but the Bruins are expected to ink him to a long-term contract.

In the aftermath of the grueling win in Game Three, Rask was looking no further than Friday night.

“Every game means more and more than the one before. So we just have to focus on what we have to do to win the hockey games and not look too far ahead in the future. We just have to play a solid game and see where that takes us,” he said.